Finally, keep in mind that it is always acceptable not to know what something is or means. This ability to allow for mystery is what John Keats called “negative capability,” or “being in uncertainties, mysteries, and doubts without irritable reaching after fact and reason.” It is in mindfulness that we act in just that way: enduring our unknowing and yet sitting serenely. From that position some unique meaning is allowed to ripen over time, in its own time.
